‘The Avengers’ Is The Biggest Movie Opening Ever [Updated]

Published 2 years ago
by
Rob Keyes
, Updated May 13th, 2012 at 12:01 pm,

The box office estimates are in for the May 4th weekend and SHIELD’s Helicarrier just destroyed Hogwarts. Marvel’s The Avengers has become the world’s biggest film opening ever, dominating previous record holder Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 and The Dark Knight by over $30 million domestically.

The Avengers isn’t just winning the love from moviegoers and fans however, as it’s also earning high critical praise with a 94% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a 4.5/5 score in Screen Rant’s own review of The Avengers. Let’s take a look at the numbers and comparisons.

According to the Walt Disney Studios estimates up on Box Office Mojo, The Avengers ranked in $200.3 million domestically (including a record-breaking $15.5 in Canada) over the weekend after also succeeding as the biggest midnight opening ever for a superhero film ($18.7 million vs. The Dark Knight’s $18.5 million), along with breaking a multitude of international records.

[Update: The actuals are in and The Avengers made even more! $207,438,708 to be precise.]

For comparison, here are the previous Marvel Studios opening weekends:

Iron Man 2 ($128,122,480)

Iron Man ($98,618,668)

Thor ($65,723,338)

Captain America: The First Avenger ($65,058,524)

The Incredible Hulk ($55,414,050)

Worldwide, The Avengers has now brought in nearly $642 million and is on track to approach James Cameron numbers for Titanic and Avatar, which both sit above $2 billion thanks to the recent Titanic 3D re-release.

Actuals will hit tomorrow, but for now we can safely say that Joss Whedon has directed the biggest opening movie of all time and is finally going to get the credit he deserves and the ability to do what he wants going forward. For Marvel Studios, they’ve successfully branded The Avengers and all of its respective characters and should have a lot more leeway and hopefully, creative freedom, to take more risks going forward with their future projects and Avengers sequels. The success of this film could change Marvel’s plans for 2014 and 2015 where three-four films remain unannounced.

The Avengers are here to stay and fans have welcomed them with open arms.

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man was the first film to break $100 million in one weekend at the box office so it’s fitting that another Marvel film breaks the $200 million barrier. We now await what The Amazing Spider-Man and The Dark Knight Rises can do at the box office and in the eyes of fans and critics when they release in July.

The Avengers will hold #1 until July 20th. I’m in doubt now that The Dark Knight Rises will be The Avengers. 3D does make a difference gross-wise (I hate 3D). The Avengers has 2 major advantages: 1) its advertised as a family flick giving it a broader audience and 2) TDKR does not have 3D.

I’m a huge Batman/Nolan fan and have been disappointed with Iron Man, Captain America, Thor (especially), and Hulk so I had low expectations for The Avengers. Disappointed does not mean I didn’t like them, just expected more. After hearing so many positive things, I look forward to seeing this movie. Hopefully its available in 2D.

So it’s got a 93% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and I’ve pretty much only heard people say good things about it–but I found THE AVENGERS to be really tedious and unexciting. I spent the last hour just wanting it to be over. It was either taking forever to set things up, or it was a chaos of whirling metal being thrown at the camera. What’d I miss? My older brother, who I saw it with, found it boring as well. Haters? Likers? Let’s discuss. My theory is that I just have better, more discerning taste in movies than the people that really liked it, but that’s a theory I’d be willing to tweak.

not everybody likes the same thing, which is cool, but then you had to be a pretentious d****e and say you have “better, more discerning taste in movies than the people that really liked it” which to me sounds like an insult, and a bit like troll bait, but that’s just my opinion.

“My theory is that I just have better, more discerning taste in movies than the people that really liked it”
Has anyone ever called you “a pretentious [insert profanity]” by any chance?
I’m gonna go head and assume the answer is “yes”

Breaking the weekend record without breaking the oPening day record goes to show how good the word of mouth is out there. This movie got people wanting to speak about it and when people repeatedly hear about it, they can’t help but find out what the talk is about. As for other movies, as much as I love Batman, I’m looking forward to The Hobbit the most.

Breaking the weekend record without breaking the opening day record goes to show how good the word of mouth is out there. This movie got people wanting to speak about it and when people repeatedly hear about it, they can’t help but find out what the talk is about. As for other movies, as much as I love Batman, I’m looking forward to The Hobbit the more.

Breaking the weekend record without breaking the opening day record goes to show how good the word of mouth is out there. This movie got people wanting to speak about it and when people repeatedly hear about it, they can’t help but find out what the talk is about.

Joss Whedon, YOU ARE THE MAN. You just proved an ensemble superhero movie could work to perfection. Congratulations! I don’t know if any superhero movie will ever be able to top this one, except perhaps the sequel to Avengers, which I’m hoping everybody returns for.

Will definitely go see this one again, and it’s well deserving of the record and deserves every penny it makes.

The Avengers, dear, did send a message: loyalty, joining together despite polarization (word to ya mutha, batnolanites), and rising above adversity. Batman: fear, distrust, paranoia, and hatred of all those who think different than you (i.e., basically the fan fave of the liberal movement).

The Avengers, dear, did send a message: loyalty, joining together despite polarization (word to ya mutha, batnolanites), and rising above adversity. Batman: fear, distrust, paranoia, and hatred of all those who think different than you (i.e., basically the fan fave of the liberal movement, i.e., attack everything that threatens you with no discernment other than the end-goal of discrediting it to maintain what little power you have).

Sadly and ironically, after waiting many, many years for this movie, I am probably the last one on the planet to watch it. Knocked down by a bout of illness, there was little chance I could watch it on the opening weekend despite vain attempts. And of course I stayed clear of SR up till now so as not to be prejudiced by any comments (sorry).

So I finally watch it this weekend and come on SR to put in my two cents only to discover that everyone seems to have moved on. I’m dozens of Avengers threads and thousands of comments behind! Lol! Ah well, if there’s still anyone reading this besides chirping crickets, here goes:

Avengers was awesome! Although, like Thor, we had seen a lot of the good stuff in previews, there was still a lot to go round. Whedon handled the characters well. None (not even the SHIELD agents)suffered from under-exposure. Everyone had enough time..so much so that I found myself wondering who else they could swing into the mix. I guess the advantage was no character needing any introduction. So Whedon just dealt with bonding. There was enough dialogue, the classic Thor-Hulk fight scene, and enough to digest in another two viewings. Wow just wow. Thor didn’t disappoint. His fight with shellhead was cool.

If anything, the chitauris were a bit underwhelming as adversaries but good enough for a first movie and helped the Avengers sell themselves. With all that was going on, their blandness may have been for the best. Was that Thanos at the end of the movie? Looked a bit ‘rubbery’ to me but yes he’ll make an interest villain.

Shame about Coulson though, but someone had to die to bring some gravity to the movie and, of all of them I’m afraid to admit, he’s the most expendable. Hey, I’d say Agent Hill but I guess they have plans for her, huh?

3 stars, it was GOOD. For a fan boy or comic book reader, I’m sure this movie is a piece of God. For a casual movie goer, it’s pretty awesome. Not entirely for me, although I did enjoy this movie plenty, it is over rated IMO.

Acting, great! Every character has their respective traits and personalities. The characters actually work very well together with their due screen time, they share the spot light well. Special effects? Great! Comedy? I found it somewhat corny the majority of the time. Tony Stark/Robert Downey JR was the best as usual at bringing the laughs. All this talk about how funny the movie was is just over excitement from a nerdgasm. I chuckled a few times (and I love my fair share of comedies) but that’s it. I mean I literally left the theater an hour ago of typing this so it’s fresh on my mind. People were jumping out of their seats at some of these one-liners. Funny, but anyone being brought to tears or getting a six pack from laughing at this movie so hard should see a doctor.

The Story? Wait, there’s a story involved? The story or whatever you want to call it was a snooze-fest. Not that this movie needs one anyways, I saw the story as an excuse for the awesome action. I suppose it works in the comics or for those who are into that type of thing. The story carries a movie for me; the explosions carried this one, which should tell you something. You have to admit, the intro was corny.

The action? Brilliant! But throughout the entire movie, all I felt was ‘why?’ It was pointless action… beautiful, pointless action. Once the shooting and lightning and missiles flew, I was engaged. Joss did an excellent job here! No bad angles, no visuals that stood out like a sore thumb (except for Black Widows head/hair-butt move). That was my inner child leaving a wet mess in my pants. I’d prefer more heroes vs. villains rather than heroes vs. CGI armies but it worked out great either way.

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t fall asleep or wish it was over sooner, but I see why some people have said this movie was slow. The story isn’t interesting enough to keep you engaged in between the action scenes. But throw in a few laughs and a bunch of “WOW” moments and you get the Avengers! I wouldn’t go see this twice though.

I think this movie is wildly popular because 1. Captain America, Thor, Iron Man, Black Widow and Hawkeye in one freakin’ movie! Did I mention they have a Hulk? 2. Who doesn’t want to see Iron Man and Thor duke it out or Hulk smash? 3. Action and possibly the most questionable reason number 4! PEOPLE HAD LOW EXPECTATIONS SO IT WOULD BE DIFFICULT TO DISAPPOINT.

Go ahead and admit you had low expectations, I didn’t think they could pull it off, but they did.

Overall, this movie succeeds at what it does but doesn’t really push the envelope. As a “comic book” movie, it’s fantastic! As a “movie” movie, it’s just a pop-corn flick. Entertaining, not ground breaking. I liked it, didn’t love it. I might even buy it when it releases. I enjoyed watching these superheroes together, it was refreshing and fulfilled my inner childhood wet dreams (Did that sound right?). I’d prefer a more story-driven movie with more brains than brawns. With that being said, I’ll take it for what it is.

I did feel as well during the first half that it was a little slow in some places in between the action, but the first time it wasn’t a problem. Though the slow parts really got to me in the consequent viewings. And as for the story, I have never gone to a superhero movie expecting a good story. It’s a superhero, I wanna see him/her use their superpowers, not be going on about talking all the time (like Tony Stark did in Iron Man 2 and bored me to death with the stupid and crass humor). Story is damn important for me, but for some reason I never go to a superhero movie for the story.
So for a popcorn flick, this movie certainly deserves 4/5. And frankly, that’s the only thing I see the movie as. And yeah, the story was nothing special, and the intro certainly was cheesy to some extent.
I guess the thing that really made this movie special was seeing those superheros together on the screen. And that’s what I really went to see in the theater again and again
P.S: I’ve never read a single Marvel or DC comic, so I merely go to these movies to watch the superheros in action, not for their personal stories. Not a fanboy or anything of any of them.

Actually, seeing as I’m not a fanboy or a reader of the comics, I don’t think I should even be here commenting, because I frankly have no love for any of the superheros. I just wanted a good movie, and it didn’t disappoint.

Surprisingly as a fan of the Avengers, I tend to agree with all your points @ATG save for the last one. I don’t know how anyone, coming from the successes of IM, IM2, Thor, and Cap, could ever have any low expectations about the movie. It was a done deal as a major hit from the time it was conceived. For those that even had a shadow of doubt, the previews should have dispelled it quickly. Now GL, Ghost Rider- I had low expectations. The coming Man of Steel perhaps? But The Avengers? No way!

As for your other comments, though I give Avengers a 4/5 for being a wildly entertaining film, I did feel at times that there was room to make the movie more serious with more emphasis on gravity of apocalyptic situation eg human casualties (not just explosions) and scenes from the White House and UN etc. Some of the generous humour might have detracted from this but hey, it was good movie all in all. Fan boys dream I guess

Haha, yeah, it did stick out to me at all moments that not a single human casualty took place. And the humor could have been toned down a little but hey, compared to the Tranformers movies where they try to have too much humor and some people actually like it (even though most of it is crass and cringe-inducing), this one was miles better.

Not a single human casualty? So the two guards shot by hawkeye outside the concert hall, the shield agents shot on the helicarrier, the agents disintegrated by loki when he comes through the portal, and everyone subsequently buried when the shield facility collapses, not to mention agent Coulson, whose death set up the entire meaning of ‘Avengers’ didn’t matter?

Haha, no, they do matter. I was talking about the final battle where they didn’t show a single person on the street getting hit or killed when everything started blowing up.
The death of Agent Coulson mattered big time, again hoping he comes back in some capacity or the other in future movies.

I think Loki wanted to rule the people & only kill those who who stand in his way or wouldn’t kneel before him. People were seen being rounded by the aliens & coming close to be killed. Loki also wanted to defeat The Avengers infront of everyone to see.

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